Republicans: Polls show Michigan now a toss-up state

FILE - In 2012 file photos President Barack Obama, left, Talks to reporters in Washington on June 8 and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign stop in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 14. When it comes to the economy, half of Americans in a new poll say it won't matter much whether Barack Obama or Mitt Romney wins the presidential election. (AP Photo/Scott Applewhite, left, and Evan Vucci, file)

As the vice presidential candidates prepare to debate in Kentucky this evening, the Michigan Republican Party says Michigan has moved from a state leaning towards re-electing President Barack Obama to a toss-up state.

Michigan GOP Chairman Bobby Schostak issued a statement shortly before 11 a.m. Thursday saying polls gathered by the website realclearpolitics.com indicates Obama’s lead over Republican Mitt Romney in Michigan has been cut 1.5 percentage points to a 3.7 percent lead, moving the state into the toss-up category with less than four weeks until election day.

“Today’s news reflects what we are seeing and feeling on the ground, the momentum is in Gov. Romney’s favor,” Schostak said.

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Democrats, not surprisingly, disagree, pointing out that Romney’s campaign has indicated as late as yesterday that Michigan isn’t a must-win state for Romney, that the campaign isn’t running advertising in Michigan, and that Romney himself isn’t campaigning here.

For that matter, neither is Obama.

Both Romney and Obama have tended to rely on high-profile surrogates in Michigan while they personally hit the states they consider to be must-win to get to the magic number of 270 electoral votes.

“We’ve always anticipated a close race — in Michigan and across the country — which is why our campaign has been committed from the beginning to building the strongest grassroots campaign in Michigan history,” McGrath said. “We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished so far, we’re taking nothing for granted, and over the next four weeks we will continue to present the very clear choice in this election between the president, whose priority is the security of middle-class families, and Gov. Romney, who wants to cut taxes for the wealthiest on the backs of the middle class, turn Medicare into a voucher program, and who would have ‘let Detroit go bankrupt’ when the auto industry was on the brink.”